SINGAPORE: Mrs Rena Lee will succeed Mr Daren Tang as the chief executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) from Aug 1, said the Ministry of Law on Friday (Jun 19).
Mr Tang will be leaving IPOS to take up appointment as the director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on Oct 1 - becoming the first Singaporean to lead a UN agency and the first WIPO director-general from Asia.
AdvertisementAdvertisement[h=3]READ: Singaporean Daren Tang officially appointed next head of UN intellectual property agency WIPO[/h]Mr Tang was appointed deputy chief executive of IPOS in August 2012 and was made chief executive in November 2015.
"He played an instrumental role in driving the strategic transformation of IPOS from an IP registry and regulator into an innovation agency that helps to build Singapore’s future economy," said the law ministry.
During his term, there were "major updates" on Singapore’s IP Hub Masterplan, legislative and policy reforms to the IP regime and a scaling up of international engagement, added the ministry.
AdvertisementAdvertisement“Under his leadership we have seen Singapore’s IP ecosystem flourish and Singapore rise through the ranks to become the top in Asia for the best IP protection in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report," said Mr Loh Khum Yean, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Law and the Public Service Division.
Mrs Lee is currently Singapore’s Ambassador for Oceans and Law of the Sea Issues and the Special Envoy of the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
In this capacity, she is serving as the President of the Intergovernmental Conference on an international legally binding instrument, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction.
She was most recently Minister-Counsellor at the Hague Diplomatic Office of Singapore.
Dr Stanley Lai, chairman of the board of directors of IPOS, said: "The board warmly welcomes Rena as Daren’s successor, and we look forward to working with her to take IPOS into new levels of success in growing our robust IP infrastructure to undergird the proliferation of new innovations and solutions for Singapore over the next few years."
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